One of the cool things about the 3D Robotics factory in San Diego is that it's near the Naval air station and there are a load of cool military aircraft flying by all the time. Today, the Blue Angels were practicing while the 3D Robotics team was testing some new ArduCopter hardware. 

(via 3D Robotics…

One of the biggest challenges in an open source development project is getting the "architecture of participation" right. Like a great game, contributing should be easy to pick up but hard to master, giving people of all skills and experience an opportunity to engage. Right now we have scores of developers working…

The 3D Robotics PhoneDrone Android/RC interface board is finally in production! Pre-orders are starting now and it will ship on Oct 17th. From the product listing:

It's a way to connect any…

Spotted on Thingverse, uploaded by Jag.…

More goodness from UC Berkeley: iBird, a robotic ornithopter that can fly towards shiny targets. Starts at 1:31 in the video above (the first part is a cockroach). From Gizmodo.

From our Wired Science blog. This team is presenting this week at the International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems in San Francisco this week. I'm speaking there, too, on…

Oh, the things you can do with a Vicon motion capture system and an unlimited research budget! (More coolness from ETH Zurich, via Robots.net)

Via RCG:

"Finders, keepers: Marines say people who found military drones on NC beaches can keep them



By Associated Press…

Just autonomous in the vertical axis so far, but that's progress. From Physorg.com:

"With the goal of designing an insect-inspired flying microrobot capable…

Not many change of relevence to us, but this is a nice addition: labels…

Last installment of the charming GE ad campaign that combines MakerBots and model airplanes. And this one includes a UAV! All the 3D models will be posted here. 

More coolness from the UPenn GRASP lab, via IEEE…

Having a problem with your APM? No worries! I'll hop on the next plane and personally come check out your board, wherever you are. It's the least we can do.

For example, John Stuart was having trouble…

Hot off the wires (needless to say, ArduPilot will be part of this. 32-bit, 100Mhz, yum!):

Atmel and Arduino Collaborate on

AVR and ARM-based Development Platforms…

More goodness from the engineers down the hill from me at UC Berkeley. The quad can see and catch ping pong balls! Life is good if you've got a Vicon motion caption system and an Ascending Technologies quad (ie, a big research budget).

From…

Due to the recent shift from a Subversion to a Git repository, you'll need to use the latest versions of the Mission Planner to ensure that you'll be able to get the latest ArduPlane and ArduCopter firmware. Versions from 1.0.67 up will pull from the correct Git repository. 

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This is a bit off-topic, but my MakerBots are some of my favorite open source hardware and 3D printers are a cool prototyping tool that we use a lot at 3D Robotics. The New York Times ran a great diagram of how they work today (click for larger size):

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From Robots.net:

The explicitly named “Bioinspired Integrated Multi-Modal Locomotion” is a project of Carnegie Mellon’s University,…

I've been checking out Upverter, which is a YCombinator startup that's aiming to the the "GitHub for electronics" and open source hardware. So far it looks like they're very much on the right track, with excellent social and workflow tools built into a Web-based schematic…

Look what showed up in my Google ads! The APM-ready Scout UAV carbon fiber quadcopter frame is now available.

$360 complete with ESCs, motors and props seems like a very…